Putting The Cart Before The Horse
A rebuilt radiator was installed and an upper hose constructed from leftover parts of upper and lower hoses, with some copper tubing in between. Another bottle of JB Radiator Stop Rust in the system will hopefully prevent the Titanic-looking innards of the cooling system from spreading to the new radiator. It leaks a bit at the hose junction, but that's probably because we finally bought a radiator cap.
With the bed off for the Pierce Sales kit and planning ahead a bit, we installed a Valley receiver to enable towing again. The pintle hook went away with the M1008 bumper due to the dump-bed kit, and since we didn't quite trust having the bumper (and pintle) held on by only the two pivot bolts for the dump bed, we left it off. Now the pickup could tow again, if it only would run right.
Getting Cranky Again
Once the weather improved, we tightened all the fuel-line clamps, but never really found anything suspect. With warmer temperatures, the 6.2 would indeed start, usually, although now it was leaking fuel from the vicinity of the injector pump when cold, which would then stop once the motor warmed up a bit. No biggie, we thought.
With a functional dump bed and all the windows in place, we'd even installed the seat. Well, we'd put it in place, anyway-we'll find bolts for it one of these days-and covered it with a filthy Indian blanket once used in our '76 Crew Cab. By now we were getting good at using just the right amount of starting fluid (if needed) and would drive the pickup almost daily, playing with the dump bed and enjoying driving the thing in general.
As a reward, we even gave it an air-cleaner gasket to keep the bigger stuff out of the intake tract.
Raining on Our Parade
All around, a good deal. By putting the free window glass in the doors, we could finally put the seat in the cab. Getting rid of all the broken glass that kept dribbling out from the bottom of the doors was another welcome benefit of removing the inside door trim. It also allowed us to push out a big old honking dent. Well, it was actually necessary to make the glass fit.
After comparing notes and getting advice from Diesel-Tune, we ordered new glow plugs from Rush, because they seemed to be the main issue with getting the diesel started, but mild temperatures allowed doing without for now. Even the grinding noise had virtually disappeared as something must've worn in. Or out.
Oddly enough, the sound from the bungeed-on glasspack mufflers wasn't noticeable, either. Things were working suspiciously well, and sure enough, when downhill and away from the homestead, the motor stopped running above idle. It'd get home in First gear low-range, we figured, but instead the vindictive 6.2 slowly quit running altogether. A neighbor towed us back home on a strap, which was almost as embarrassing as getting passed on the right on a multilane road. Now the new glow plugs didn't seem so important anymore. Neither did the "new" 12-volt starter we scored while visiting Dennis Franklin a week before.
So much for getting this obstinate machine to run well on time. We checked all the potentially suspect items according to the manual, then did what any self-respecting and mechanically inclined four-wheel-drive owner would do in a situation like this. We parked the pickup in a remote corner of the driveway, rolled up the windows, and put a piece of cardboard over the gauge cluster to keep the sun from baking the instruments from the backside. It's been sitting there since, in shame.